...brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.

...brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.

It is characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.

It is characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.

Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own read more

It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own image. Rather does he create Him in the image of his cravings and dreams- in the image of what man wants to be. God making could be part of the process by which a society realizes its aspirations: it first embodies them in the conception of a particular God, and then proceeds to imitate that God. The confidence requisite for attempting the unprecedented is most effectively generated by the fiction that in realizing the new we are imitating rather than originating. Our preoccupation with heaven can be part of an effort to find precedents for the unprecedented.

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus read more

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Reason and action are congeneric and homogenous, two aspects of the same phenomenon.

Reason and action are congeneric and homogenous, two aspects of the same phenomenon.

Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.

Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.

It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since read more

It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.